Nature & Wildlife
Our world is a colorful place. Just think of the vivid blues, greens, oranges, reds and yellows of Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park, the rainbow-hued mountains of Zhangye National Geopark in China or the shimmering green and purple bands of light in the aurora borealis above the tundra in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada.
News & More
Whale sharks are the biggest fish and shark in the world. Adults can weigh 41,000 pounds and average about 40 feet long, but they may grow as large as 65 feet. According to World Wildlife Fund (WWF), these gentle giants roam all the planet’s tropical oceans, generally alone.
Asia & The Pacific
Bioluminescence is a natural phenomenon that highlights the brilliance of the natural world—literally! Glowworms light up, fireflies flash and plankton sparkle. These animals use their natural abilities to ensnare prey, to defend themselves, to attract mates and, at times, to simply illuminate the path ahead.
Conservation
In prepandemic times, those of us who cherish wildlife and wild places tried to quantify them in economic terms, hoping to convince those who didn’t care about protecting nature that not doing so would impact their bottom lines. Now, 10 months after the coronavirus outbreak, that strategy seems naive to me.
Nature & Wildlife
Every night on Earth, a great migration takes place. It’s bigger than the ones of caribou, wildebeest or zebras on land or Arctic terns in the air. But while this stupendous, nightly migration overshadows all the others, you’ve probably never heard of it. And even more surprising is the fact that it’s vertical.
Nature & Wildlife
More than 400 shark species inhabit our planet. And while facts about some of them may be well-known to researchers and the rest of us, there are many shark species whose behaviors remain mysterious and secretive. In mid-April 2018, we learned that the actions of basking sharks fell into that latter category.
Videos
We know that the world’s forests—boreal, temperate and tropical—play a large role in sequestering carbon dioxide (CO2)—as long as drought, harvesting, insect damage and wildfires don’t overpower them. But we may have another “champion” helping us to combat rising CO2 levels: whales.
